Prosecution Insights
Last updated: August 16, 2026

Imec Vzw

27 pending office actions • 20 art units • 27 examiners • 0 of 27 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 74 patents granted in the last 365 days

Portfolio Summary

27
Total Pending OAs
21
Non-Final OAs
6
Final Rejections
0
Advisory / Quayle

Response Deadline Pressure

Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 12 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.

5
Overdue
1
Due this week
3
Due this month
0
Due in next 60 days
3
Due later

Deadline Fire Line

Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 12 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.

-30dToday30d60d90d120d
Overdue (5)Due ≤ 7 days (1)Due ≤ 30 days (3)Due later (3)

Case Difficulty Mix

Difficulty is derived from the rejection statutes on the most recent pending office action. §101-driven and multi-statute cases are graded Hard; §112-only and obviousness-type double-patenting cases are graded Easy; everything else is Medium. "Unknown" means we have not yet parsed a statute for that office action.

16
Hard (59%)
9
Medium (33%)
2
Easy (7%)
0
Unknown (0%)

Rejection Statute Mix

BucketCases
§101 + other1 (4%)
§103 only8 (30%)
§102 only1 (4%)
§112 only2 (7%)
Multi-statute (no §101)15 (56%)

Industry Mix

How the docket's pending cases split across USPTO tech-center bands.

6
Life Sciences
22% of docket
0
Information Tech
0% of docket
0
Communications
0% of docket
15
Semiconductors
56% of docket
2
Mechanical / Eng
7% of docket
4
Business / Other
15% of docket

Time-on-OA Estimate

Manual office-action response work runs about 10 hours per case. The time-saved bands below show what IP Author's prosecution pipeline typically delivers — a conservative 20% on the low end, 35% in the middle, 50% on the high end.

270 h
Manual time on pending OAs
54 h
Time saved (low, 20%)
94 h
Time saved (mid, 35%)
2.4 wks
FTE-weeks freed (mid)

Top Examiners on this docket

ExaminerApps on this docketAllow rateInterview lift
HIDALGO, FERNANDO N 1 93.4% +1.3%
CARTER, JONATHAN LANGDON 1
PHILLIPS, RUFUS L 1 62.1% +32.8%
WANG, JING 1 100.0% +0.0%
LEBRON DE JESUS, GRACIELA NATALIA 1 31.3% +70.9%
ZHANG, RICHARD Z 1 65.5% +65.5%
NGUYEN, HENRY H 1 63.8% +36.9%
KIM, SU C 1 77.6% -11.9%
KOLTONOW, ANDREW ROBERT 1 46.3% +33.8%
VU, VU A 1 92.3% +6.7%

Hard Cases (16)

Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.

App #TitleExaminerDue in
18010722 A METHOD FOR COMPUTING A HOLOGRAPHIC INTERFERENCE PATTERN CHANG, AUDREY Y 117d overdue
18065918 Method for Bonding Dies to a Carrier Substrate OH, JIYOUNG 24d overdue
18393221 MICRO-ELECTRONIC COMPONENT COMBINING POWER DELIVERY AND COOLING FROM THE BACK SIDE KIM, SU C 2d overdue
18197841 VERTICAL LASER EMITTER AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF NELSON, HUNTER JARED 23d
18392429 NANOPORE SENSING DEVICE WITH MULTIPLE SENSING LAYERS VU, VU A 62d
18500642 MAGNETORESISTIVE RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY DEVICE WITH IN-PLANE MAGNETIC LAYER YUSHINA, GALINA G 84d
18474803 Process for Wafer Bonding TURNER, BRIAN 84d
18920207 3D Ferroelectric Memory Structure and Method for Reading-Out the Memory Structure HIDALGO, FERNANDO N

Interview Candidates (5)

Cases in front of an examiner whose interview lift is 10 percentage points or more — i.e. interviewed cases historically resolve more favorably than non-interviewed ones. The top 5 ordered by deadline are shown.

App #TitleExaminerDue in
18392362 Electrochemical Synthesis of Molecules on a Surface KOLTONOW, ANDREW ROBERT 5d
18655789 Gas Injected Chemistry for Single Wafer Processing ZHANG, RICHARD Z 28d
18808756 LIGHT EXCITATION AND COLLECTION DEVICE AND A METHOD FOR LIGHT EXCITATION AND COLLECTION PHILLIPS, RUFUS L
18666250 REHABILITATION ROBOT OR EXOSKELETON AND COMPONENTS THEREOF LEBRON DE JESUS, GRACIELA NATALIA
18397221 BIO-FET-BASED PEPTIDE SEQUENCING METHOD AND DEVICE NGUYEN, HENRY H

Top Art Units

Art UnitApps
2818 3
2815 2
2827 1
2877 1
1714 1
1657 1
2899 1
1795 1
2897 1
2874 1

Pending Office Actions

App #TitleExaminerArt UnitStatutesStatusDue inAIFiled
18920207 3D Ferroelectric Memory Structure and Method for Reading-Out the Memory Structure HIDALGO, FERNANDO N 2827 §102§103 Non-Final OA Pending Oct 18, 2024
18906945 Method for Thinning a Semiconductor Substrate CARTER, JONATHAN LANGDON §103§112 Non-Final OA Pending Oct 04, 2024
18808756 LIGHT EXCITATION AND COLLECTION DEVICE AND A METHOD FOR LIGHT EXCITATION AND COLLECTION PHILLIPS, RUFUS L 2877 §103 Non-Final OA Pending Aug 19, 2024
18802294 Method For Producing A Substrate Comprising Scanning Probe Microscopy Tips WANG, JING §103§112 Non-Final OA Pending Aug 13, 2024
18666250 REHABILITATION ROBOT OR EXOSKELETON AND COMPONENTS THEREOF LEBRON DE JESUS, GRACIELA NATALIA §102§103§112 Non-Final OA Pending May 16, 2024
18655789 Gas Injected Chemistry for Single Wafer Processing ZHANG, RICHARD Z 1714 §103 Final Rejection 28d Pending May 06, 2024
18397221 BIO-FET-BASED PEPTIDE SEQUENCING METHOD AND DEVICE NGUYEN, HENRY H 1657 §101§102§103 Non-Final OA Pending Dec 27, 2023
18393221 MICRO-ELECTRONIC COMPONENT COMBINING POWER DELIVERY AND COOLING FROM THE BACK SIDE KIM, SU C 2899 §102§103§112 Final Rejection 2d overdue Pending Dec 21, 2023
18392362 Electrochemical Synthesis of Molecules on a Surface KOLTONOW, ANDREW ROBERT 1795 §103 Non-Final OA 5d Pending Dec 21, 2023
18392429 NANOPORE SENSING DEVICE WITH MULTIPLE SENSING LAYERS VU, VU A 2897 §102§103§112 Final Rejection 62d Pending Dec 21, 2023
18389977 MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE AND A METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING A MICROFLUIDIC DEVICE JARRETT, LORE RAMILLANO §102§112 Non-Final OA Pending Dec 20, 2023
18543815 Integrated Circuit Device and a Method for Forming the Same HAN, JONATHAN 2818 §103 Non-Final OA Pending Dec 18, 2023
18541931 LOW-LOSS OPTICAL BENT WAVEGUIDE CORE KIANNI, KAVEH C 2874 §103 Non-Final OA Pending Dec 15, 2023
18500642 MAGNETORESISTIVE RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY DEVICE WITH IN-PLANE MAGNETIC LAYER YUSHINA, GALINA G 2811 §103§112 Non-Final OA 84d Pending Nov 02, 2023
18287501 A SAMPLE COLLECTOR EPPERT, LUCY CLARE 3791 §112 Non-Final OA 49d overdue Pending Oct 19, 2023
18486370 METHOD FOR INTERCONNECTING A BURIED WIRING LINE AND A SOURCE/DRAIN BODY WIEGAND, TYLER J 2812 §112 Final Rejection Pending Oct 13, 2023
18474803 Process for Wafer Bonding TURNER, BRIAN 2818 §102§103 Non-Final OA 84d Pending Sep 26, 2023
18197841 VERTICAL LASER EMITTER AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF NELSON, HUNTER JARED 2828 §102§103§112 Non-Final OA 23d Pending May 16, 2023
18169761 3D INTEGRATED CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICE MEMORY AND METHOD OF FABRICATING THE SAME BAUMAN, SCOTT E 2815 §103 Non-Final OA Pending Feb 15, 2023
18010722 A METHOD FOR COMPUTING A HOLOGRAPHIC INTERFERENCE PATTERN CHANG, AUDREY Y 2872 §103§112 Non-Final OA 117d overdue Pending Dec 15, 2022
18065918 Method for Bonding Dies to a Carrier Substrate OH, JIYOUNG 2818 §102§103 Non-Final OA 24d overdue Pending Dec 14, 2022
18065122 Method for Forming a Precursor Semiconductor Device Structure FREY, KIMBERLY NEWMAN 2817 §102 Final Rejection 13d Pending Dec 13, 2022
17720005 Methods and Systems for Labelling Nucleic Acids SWITZER, JULIET CAROLINE 1682 §102§103§112 Non-Final OA Pending Apr 13, 2022
17653070 Bioreactor Tile Including Fluidic Channels and an Optical Waveguide EDWARDS, LYDIA E 1796 §103 Non-Final OA Pending Mar 01, 2022
17550508 METHOD AND SYSTEM TO PRODUCE DIES FOR A WAFER RECONSTITUTION CULBERT, CHRISTOPHER A 2815 §103§112 Final Rejection Pending Dec 14, 2021
17524121 ELECTRODE ARRANGEMENT, A NEURAL PROBE, AND A METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING AN ELECTRODE ARRANGEMENT GUERRERO ROSARIO, ANA VERUSKA 3794 §102§103 Non-Final OA Pending Nov 11, 2021
17020008 PHOTORESIST FOR EUV AND/OR E-BEAM LITHOGRAPHY CHAMPION, RICHARD DAVID 1737 §103 Non-Final OA 67d overdue Pending Sep 14, 2020

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